Sunday, February 26, 2012

Cold, rainy Seattle


Three times a week, I walk across campus to class.  After 8 weeks of the quarter, I have worn a jacket exactly once, because it is generally dry and warm enough to do without a jacket.

To be completely fair, I missed a few days due to travel and I don't know how the weather was then.  And, on some of days it rained at other times, such as overnight, which keeps the region green but doesn't mar our enjoyment of it.  Finally, at least once it was misting outside, but not enough to justify a jacket.  Some days it was overcast, on others gloriously sunny.

Seattle has an undeserved reputation for non-stop precipitation.  A popular joke says "It only rains once a year in Seattle, but it lasts 9 months."  In reality, Seattle doesn't get very much rain.

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Java type annotations: early draft review


The type annotations specification ("JSR 308") is in Early Draft Review.  This is an opportunity for the public to comment on the proposed specification, so that it can be improved before being incorporated in the Java language.

Oracle has announced that they intend to include, in JDK 8, support for type annotations.  Currently, Java only permits annotations, such as @Deprecated or @Override, to be written on declarations.  The ability to write annotations on type uses enables improved documentation and bug detection.  One example use is the Checker Framework for pluggable typechecking.  Note that the Checker Framework is a third-party tool and not part of the Java language proper.